Civic Head Asks Mayor To “Intercede” With CB 18 On Local Rulings

By Charles Rogers

The president of the South Canarsie Civic Association (SCCA) last week wrote a letter to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city and state officials appealing to them to “intercede on behalf of all Canarsiens” in response to an “outcry” by members at their November 9th meeting. regarding what she called “problems” in Canarsie neighborhoods.

Mary Anne Sallustro, the civic group’s president, who joined with her organization’s members in celebrating their 17th year, cited a “flagrant disregard for human life” because ”they” — referring officials of Community Board 18 — “disregard the value, along with the safety and quality of our very lives from young to old.”

In the letter, she wrote they “lied to us about the school on East 107th Street between Flatlands Avenue and Avenue J,” citing it as a transfer high school for students from age eleven to twenty-four. “Is this safe?” she asks.

She also questions the concerns of seniors in the neighborhood regarding the front and rear yards on the blocks surrounding the school and the lack of catch-basins within the area.

Mrs. Sallustro also mentions the East 96th Street block near Avenue J, where Senator John Sampson’s new suite of offices is located and the concern of residents regarding double parking, plus the activities of “transients in one-family SRO housing conversions.”

Sallustro also cites the “blatant” parking of cars outside the closed 99- cent store on Flatlands Avenue at East 92nd Street.

The civic president ended her letter with a few more complaints, including “dangerous” blocked driveways on East 92nd Street and Conklin Avenue. “Some of these are new complaints and others are many years old and none of them would be tolerated in any other section of Community Board 18,” she said.

“Many of these (have been) neglected by our City Councilman Lewis Fidler because of disparaging remarks to our mayor and yours truly,” Mrs. Sallustro added.